The Undiscovered Country

For those not familiar with the Star Trek films the undiscovered country is the future and of course this is going to be about England's future post Brazil 2014.

Although the knives are not out yet there are rumblings and to be honest the names being bandied around totally depress me, we'll give Roy another 2 years to bring on the great crop of youngsters and then either Gary Neville or Gareth Southgate will have been groomed to take over,in other words same old and same old, a nice safe pair of hands who will say the right things in press conferences and not upset the establishment,in other words the same old mistakes we have been making since Alf Ramsey was sacked in 1973.

Why must it be a safe pair of hands or a big name with lots of Champions league and big team experience,that's not been a rousing success over the past 40 years has it so lets think outside the box for once.
You look at the Costa Rica managers CV nothing Champions League there but more importantly Jogi Low, what chance would anybody have becoming England manager with this CV but the Germans saw something

1994	FC Winterthur (youth)
1994–1995	FC Frauenfeld
1995–1996	VfB Stuttgart (assistant)
1996–1998	VfB Stuttgart
1998–1999	Fenerbahçe
1999–2000	Karlsruher SC
2001	Adanaspor
2001–2002	FC Tirol Innsbruck
2003–2004	FK Austria Wien

So why cant we do the same ,why cant we look at Tony Pulis or Kenny Jacket both of whom have a record or turning around total basket cases, why shouldn't Nigel Clough be considered for the job  that his father should have had but never got,the old ways have failed miserably so why not think totally differently and see what happens,it can't be any worse.

And so to the players,we have a great crop of youngsters and new Golden Generation, well sorry but what did the last lot win and really just how good are they, would Welbeck,Jones and Smalling be considered were they not Man Utd players,does Henderson get in an any grounds other than that he plays for Liverpool and don't get me started on Glen Johnson.

Now some will turn around and say what about the Southampton contingent and yes that is refreshing but they had a good season,why weren't players from lower ranked sides taken,Tom Huddlestone of Everton would surely have gone but Tom Huddlestone of Hull well no,back up centre halves well the aforementioned Jones and Smalling have spent the season warming the bench so why not those hardened in the battle of a relegation fight like Curtis Davies or Stephen Caulker,and before you say players at that level aren't good enough I give you the Costa Rica goalscorer yesterday that famous Fulham reject Brian Ruiz.

And why not be even braver and look below the EPL,in 1990 Bobby Robson took a Third Division (Thats League 1 to you youngsters) player to the world cup and Bully didn't look out of place in a side that got to the semi finals, why not try Danny Ings or Jamie Vardy they must be perfectly suited to international football you never know without trying.

But of course none of this will happen the FA are to gutless the media to obsessed with the EPL and Champions League and sadly in many cases to sneering of anything outside the Big 6,so when we fail again in 4 years and probably 8 (We can blame the heat for that) and its same old same old again remember there can be another route to The Undiscovered Country

Book The Plane Home

So its confirmed England are on the way home after Costa Rica's stunning win over the Italians,our most embarrassing result in any World Cup for over 50 years,however its not the team and manager that I want to go on about enough will be said about them over the coming months,no its the reaction of the EXPERTS that my ravings are about today.

Many of you will have heard  Chris Waddles impassioned outburst on Radio 5 live last night berating the almost impossible decline since South Africa,the failure of the FA to use their unimaginable riches to fund coaching and then the embarrassing performances of so many of the players,when the chips were down they went missing.

He does however appear to be a voice crying in the wilderness

Alvin Martin -Plenty of positives to take out of the tournament
Martin O'Neil- I thought England did very well
Henry Winter (A journalist I much admire) Hodgson is doing a good job he must be given more time
The FA- Roy will see his contract out

and on and on they go.

And then you listen to the phone inn's and ;look on Social Media and hear the voice of the fans

Hodgson to negative
Rooney one goal and suddenly he's world class,no way over rated
Gerard ,when he last have a good game for England
Welbeck and Henderson are not the future they get in because of who they play for

So has there ever been such a gulf between the "Experts" and the fans,those who actually pay to get in feel let down and yet their voices appear to be ignored,yes  a large crowd will still turn up at Wembley for the next match because they are the hardy souls who follow through thick and thin in the vain hope that one day it will all come right,the rest of us well we can keep our Plebby mouths shut because we know no better and should leave commenting on England to our betters, Chris Waddle excepted

The Morning After The Night Before

Another Word Cup another failure shown what its all about by a country with a population 1/15th of ours and by a player only 75% fit but don't worry we have a new golden generation coming through and we all know how well the last one did.
I have already heard comments from journalists that its not as bad as we think, well sorry but yes it is, we are the fans who invest our emotions in the England team and yet again let down by a team who go down with little more than a whimper

So where do we go from here, well for a start let's get away from the fallacy that we are a power in world football, a big side because time and time again over the past 10 to 15 years it has been proven that we are not. There will no doubt be a clamour for Hodgson to go and to bring in a big manager, well what justifies the thought that we deserve a big manager, well nothing, Erikson and Cappello came here for one reason and that was the stupid amount of money the FA were prepared to pay, money that could have been spent on grass roots or making it cheaper for promising coaches to get qualified. 
So let's be revolutionary and go for a progressive manager who wants to play the game the right way, is it beyond the realms of possibility that we could dip into the Championship or league 1 for the right man, let’s face it there are sides looking way better than us with managers who have a CV that would be laughed out of court in England

And so to the players and the new Golden Generation, well for a start many of them play in similar positions and therefore unless we continue the failed policy of square pegs in round holes we can't play them all, on 5 Live last night I heard an apoplectic Chris Waddle berating the fact that once again we go down the 11 best players route rather than picking a team.

And the players themselves, well for a start due to the huge influx of foreign players and in many cases a players unfathomable desire to be on the books of a big team rather than play regularly are bench warmers, so let's be really radical and pick players who are regular starters, why not have taken Curtis Davies and Steven Caulker  rather than Jones and Smalling,let's face it the Cardiff player in the Chile side didn't look out of place. Could we even do the unthinkable and go down to the championship to get a regular performer in a specific position.

And finally the attitude, a lot has been said about passion and desire and I am firmly of the opinion that there are players in that and previous squads for whom an England cap means little more than a bargaining chip in their next contract negotiations, for most other nations there is a real desire to do well for their country, we could do worse than use a similar desire as a selection criteria

Sadly I could have written this 4 years ago and I have a horrible feeling that I will be writing it again 4 years from now

The Hype Of That Yellow Shirt

Now I may be premature here and be proven very wrong but I do think that the hype around this current Brazilian side has been proved to be just that,hype,and why do we we seem to think that every 4 years we are going to be royally entertained by the Boys From Brazil.

The most successful side in the history of the tournament yes but the legend was really built in 3 great sides, 1958/62,1970 (The greatest of all time) and 1982 but in between there have been some just OK sides with the odd uber talented player which is what we have this time,take away Neymar ,who is still a way off Messi and Ronaldo, and you have little to inspire .

We tend to forget sides like that of  1974 ,a truly dreadful collection of clogger's as Brazil tried to become more "European" and although reaching the final in 98 they were really a one man (Ronaldo) team.

So forget the hype and judge them as you would any other side

It Was Only a Matter Of Time

Well so far it had been a good world cup ,ignore Honduras they are just minnows in a big pond trying any way to stay afloat, but finally here it is,diving and cheating and players as thick as pigshit.

Yes I'm talking Germany v Portugal and the sniveling little shit that is Thomas Muller, now I watch the Bundesliga regularly and I love it but once the Germans pull on the national shirt its BAFTA time.
Now we know that Pepe is a complete tosser and he deserved to be sent off but the way Muller reacted to a slight touch on the upper body was a complete disgrace/

It may be football Jim but not as we know it

From The Ridiculous To The Sublime

World Cup 2014 didn't really start to well,more incompetent officiating,the entire Cameroon team putting in auditions for a BAFTA  and a feeling that hear we go again

So a repeat of 4 years ago and the nadir of Dutch football did not bode well for the evenings entertainment, well one of the joys of football is the surprises it throws up,
It was one of those games one of those nights that you don't forget,Total Football was back Van Persie supreme,Robben's searing pace destroying an aging Spain so completely it was almost like an old lady being mugged
Will it last will England tonight throw caution to the wind and embrace what the Dutch have,who knows but whatever the rest of the tournament brings last night was a shining light we should never forget

World Cup Up And Diving

In deference to Mrs Cliffs loathing of football I caught up with the opening match on Match Of The Day,as far as the match went not a bad game at all,attractive open football from both sides initially boded well.
However the game will be remembered for a totally incompetent and worrying performance by the ref, Neymars raised arm would normally have been a red,the penalty was a joke of the highest order,what did the ref see that the rest of the planet didn't other than the cheating Fred and how can you foul the keeper when you don't touch him.

Now we are used to poor refereeing performances but it was the inciteful comments of the excellent Tim Vickery that sent a chill down the spine, reporting on the protests he raised the governments nightmare scenario of Brazil going out of the tournament early,
To quote from his report "I don't know if that scenario was on the refs mind but Brazil got even more home decisions than usual,if that is the case we may as well give Brazil the cup now"
We can but hope that this is untrue but in the world of Blatters FIFA who knows.

World Cup 2014 Day 1

And so its here day 1 of the world cup,Brazil v Croatia kicks the whole thing off this evening and leads us into a month of,well a month of what?
A feast of the greatest football the planet has to offer ?
A month of cheating players destroying the beautiful game in its spiritual home ?
A tournament overshadowed by protests from a people disgusted by the financial obscenity of the World Cup in a country where the basics of life are denied to so many?

In reality it will probably be a mixture of all 3 and the proportion of each will determine how posterity views this tournament

My first World Cup memory was 1966 ,yes I am that old,my greatest memory 1970 when as a teenager with a love of the game I watched Brazil,the greatest team in the history of the game define the "Beautiful Game".

Over the years there have been many highs and lows of watching world cups,sadly many of the lows involving England but I have never not looked forward to a World Cup until now,
This is a tournament being played out against a backdrop of massive corruption by the governing body of the game a game run by an old man who cares for himself and hiss mates and how much money they can make rather than the good of the game.Its a tournament involving players so wealthy and pampered that you wonder how in touch with the fans who cheer them on they really are,players to whom the spirit of the sportsmanship appears a dim and distant memory.

This Work Cup is I believe a real crossroads in the history of the game, will the spirit of the beautiful game in its heartland inspire so that our memories will be of silky skills and great joy or of snarling faces and a bending of the rules to breaking point,only time will tell.
I don't expect a Mexico 1970 but hopefully at the end we will be able to say that whatever the problems of organisation and administration that the game itself is still beautiful